Sand Racing Report Saturday 22nd April 2023

There was better fortune for some of the car drivers at the third meeting of the season as Matthew Board having finally received a new fuel pump for the Ford Focus he will be using from now on & learning the handling of this larger car compared to the Puma he had before. Karl Marshall has ironed out the gremlins in his buggy & managed to complete all the afternoons races. Less fortunate was Eric Trump who on loading his car onto it’s trailer discovered a fuel leak from a badly corroded fuel pipe leading into the fuel tank, thus meaning changing the fuel tank. A new car appeared on the beach in the hands of Jamie Queripel & thought the Audi TT 4wheel drive machine looked impressive a burst water pipe restricted his outing to just one race. The shared car of father & son Gary & Jamie Le Page was the leading saloon on the beach & thought they got to the end of the meeting there is a gearbox issue to sort before it’s next appearance. A maundering set of corner tyre markers clipped by Andy Rosamond into the path of Steve Marquis’s car meant Steve’s early retirement with gear selection & electrical issues.

Sam & Charlie Walker’s first meeting of the season did not go beyond practice thus leaving just Thomas Vining & Digby Cleal to contest the junior/intermediate slider class & once again Tyler-James Savident was the solo MX class rider. Tyler was given an important task as he had to lead new cadet rider Elisha Wallbridge around the course for her practice laps so that she new where to go. When she came out for her solo rides she was not hesitant in getting as much speed as possible from her tiny bike & seemed to be loving the thrill of riding.

The MX classes were back to full strength for this meeting with Owen Waddingham dominating the A group whilst Harry Fleet was the top B group rider. Second & Third spots were hotly contested with battles between Cory Leggett & Paul Le Messurier in the A group & Luke Saunders, Alisha Wild King & Olly Driscoll in the B group. One bike taking a real beating was the Yamaha of Cory Leggett (A) as it was being shared by Olly Driscoll (B) so it competed 10 races over the afternoon. Former wet bend marshal Sally Marquis having had a knee operation decided to hang up her yellow flag before the start of this season but still wanted to be involved so was persuaded to join the lap keeping team. For this meeting she was given the job of organizing the starting order of the two bike handicap races & working out the time/distance gaps that they would leave the start line. Two tightly fought races resulted in very close finishes with a mixture riders taking the top three spots.

Paul Stanford